Team bonding. Is that what they call it? Playing drinking games at 3 AM on a weekend, revealing deep dark secrets that no one will remember the next morning anyways.

 

Yeujin stared at his shot glass, filled to the brim. The raucous laughter from his new teammates sounded muffled as he thought back to the past. Kyung-ing-ho was messing with his heart again even with thousands of miles between them. He couldn’t even remember when or where he saw it, but a short video of the Top laner being extremely touchy-feely with his former Mid laner, Seohaeng, refused to leave his mind. Even though Kyungho promised him he loved him, for some reason he didn’t trust him.

 

Maybe it was his fault for thinking so unhealthily like that. The alcohol didn’t help in any tiny bit.

 

Liquid’s new Jungler had hoped drinking his problems away with his new team would help him forget about it, but all it did was make him think about it more. Yeujin ripped his eyes away from the shot glass in favor of the phone in his hand that just rang with a notification.

 

He frowned when his eyes were met with a simple message, not from Kyungho but from Jason, wishing the past Immortals team a happy new year and a short message that he didn’t feel any urge to read at that moment. He scrunched his nose as he noticed that his wide-rimmed, thick-framed glasses were hanging crookedly off of his nose. With his thumb and middle finger, he pushed them up the bridge of his nose just as his ears caught on to the voice repeatedly calling his name.

 

“Yeujin. Yeujin. Reignover. Jin. KIM YEUJIN!”

 

“What? What? What?” He answered tiredly as he shook his head. Why did he even consider drinking so heavily to be a good idea? He was supposed to go out with Kayli for lunch tomorrow since she would arrive in Los Angeles early the next morning after spending time with her mother in Korea.

 

Gwangjin drunkenly dropped his head in his fellow Korean’s lap. “What about you, Yeujinnie? Tell us.”

 

The Jungler choked on his laugh, which threatened to escape his throat when he saw the sight the older male had become from one too many drinks. Glowing red cheeks, eyes squinting as if he were tired, and limbs waving around this way and that with each word he spoke. He also wasn’t sure if he liked the new nickname his drunken hyeong had given him.

 

“What tell to you?” Yeujin could care less about his sentence structure with the majority of his new team starting to pass out around the living room from all the drinks they had been passing around. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he noted how messy the room looked with beer bottles and liquor containers littering the floor and coffee table in front of them. That was a problem for the Yeujin of tomorrow, not right now. So, the thought disappeared as quickly as it manifested.

 

“First kisseu~”

 

“Why?” He was sure he had raised his eyebrow in question, but with his drunken mind, who knows what he did to complement his question. What is this, high school?

 

“Come on, Yeujinnie,” the AD Carry whined brushing a hand drunkenly over the younger’s face. For being the oldest player on the team, drunk “Piglet” sure didn’t act like it. “Don’t be a spoil sport. Tell us your story~”

---

November, 21, 2014

 

“I can’t wait for you to meet him. He’s so sweet, and he’s got a nice sense of humor. Sometimes, he kind of reminds me of Kyungho…”

 

Yeujin laid with his limbs sprawled out on Kayli’s bed as he stared at her sky-painted ceiling. When she first started describing her junior crush, he had been listening to his fellow Jungler. But it didn’t take long before his interest started to wane. He’s a good friend, but honestly, Yeujin could care less about who Kayli liked rather than who liked Kayli.

 

He absolutely hated it when she got her heart broken and he was halfway across the world. But, when it was a crush, he knew he could still comfort her when she came to visit Korea or when he came to visit her in the States, and that it wouldn’t last too long. He’d be able to rest easier anyway if he knew there was a guy who pinned for her and would take care of her when he was away…but, then again, that also made him jealous. In a best friend kind of way.

 

When it came to Kayli, guys were always a lose-lose situation to Yeujin.

 

The young Jungler knew for a fact that he loved the even younger Jungler, but his level of love for her couldn’t surpass the level of love he had for the Top laner of his sister team, Kyungho.

 

“You’re not even listening, are you?” the change of language from English to Korean caught Yeujin off-guard as he blinked out of his thoughts and looked further up until his eyes landed on an upside-down Kayli from his perspective.

 

He rolled over with a sigh, taking a moment to enjoy the fluffiness of his best friend’s comforter before he spoke in their shared native tongue. “Psh, of course I am. What kind of friend would I be if I weren’t listening?”

 

He caught her rolling her eyes at him before she turned around to face the full-body mirror beside her closet. She picked a few strands of her jet-black hair, wrapping them around her baby blue curling iron. “Even Aiden can tell you’re a bad liar.”

 

The LCK Jungler scrunched his nose at her when she told him that her 6-year-old brother could tell he was lying. He wasn’t that bad of a liar. Not that that was something one should boast about.

 

“Well, you can’t blame me for being uninterested. He just sounds like some fake – uhm… what do Americans call it? – boy, just trying to get in your pants,” Yeujin groaned as he rolled over again to sit up. It wasn’t a completely false guess on his part, even if he was only half-listening. Kayli often wore her heart on her sleeve. She was definitely beautiful, even if she didn’t look like a model or some actress. Plus, it wouldn’t be the first time she was tricked by a guy from school into thinking he loved her for who she was.

 

A chef. A gamer. A dork. A girl who knows what she wants, when she wants it.

 

It happened in high school, what’s to stop it from happening in college where there are more freedoms than regulations? She stopped Yeujin from beating up the jerk who broke up with her over text in high school by telling him he wasn’t worth it. But she wasn’t able to stop him from getting into a fight with the boy who was minutes away from taking her without consent at some senior party the year before. Well, no one could blame him really.

 

Yeujin was just a good, honest, protective best friend.

 

“Fine. Then tell me about you and … uhm, Kyungho.”

 

Just the mention of the Top laner’s name made Yeujin’s heart skip a beat like some giddy high schooler and he hated it. He only hated it because Kyungho all the time for ridiculous things and he was okay with it. Because he loved liked him so much.

 

“What is there to tell?”

 

She turned around, holding the curling iron close to her head in her hair, giving him a look of disbelief. “Come on, Yeujin. I now live halfway across the world from you, and since you don’t give me minute-to-minute updates on your love life I am now required to ask you as we’re getting ready to go to your first frat party.”

 

“Why don’t you tell me about your ULOL team?”

 

“Oh my god. Yeujin. Please!”

 

“Fine. Fine. Fine.” A deep breath. “He’s funny. He’s sometimes nice, but mostly annoying. He’s pretty good at League. A Top laner in progress that hasn’t quite reached his full potential yet. He looks cute in glasses–”

 

“What the hell, Yeujin. I asked for details between you two. Not a description of him. I know who Kyungho is. I know that both of you are cute as in glasses. What I want to know is if you guys are together yet.”

 

Yeujin blinked a few times like he’d been hit in the face. He knew she liked to be quite forward with him, but this was a little … out there, even for Kayli.

 

“No.” Was his simple answer. What else was there to say?

 

“No? Like not yet, or no as in you’re feeling like he’s breaking your heart cause he’s not at least bi?” Kayli had a hand on her hip now as she let her hair sit on the heated metal of her curling iron. “Cause if he’s hurting you I will go up to him when I see him tonight and slap him in the face for dragging you around.”

 

“No…” Yeujin got another one of her looks. He let out an exasperated groan in response, “I – I don’t know.”

 

“Okay…” Kayli was a little over halfway through curling her hair, switching to start from the other side as she spoke softly. “Then, tell me how you feel about him.”

 

“, Kayli…” the LCK Jungler whined as he covered his face with his hands, rolling around in her comforter. She waited rather patiently for him to continue, which he had been hoping she wouldn’t be. He didn’t see the fond smile on her face as she turned around to face the mirror and pick up another strand of hair. Yeujin felt unreasonably giddy towards a person who often treated him like . Saying he was a horrible jungler, or that he couldn’t gank properly, denying him high-fives after a win, shoving him around on a daily basis. You name it. He probably did it.

 

It wasn’t like he really meant it, since every time he threw an insult in Yeujin’s face he’d laugh it off and then made sure to ask him if he knew that he was joking minutes later. He flipped around on Kayli’s bed, counting the glow-in-the-dark stars on her sky-painted ceiling with a sigh. “I… I think I love him… Even though he likes to mess with me all the time. I like it when he laughs and smiles because of me. I like it when it’s just the two of us and we’re playing around like little kids.” And the list went on and on. Despite the earlier notes.

 

Yeujin hadn’t even noticed when Kayli came over to sit on the edge of her bed. His eyes were closed as he continued his seemingly never-ending list of reasons he liked the Top laner of his sister team. Her fingers fondly ran through his dark brown hair, smiling softly as she listened. She could tell that he was frustrated, but genuinely happy when he thought of the things the other boy did to him.

 

Kayli and Yeujin have known each other for as long as they could remember. Their fathers had been best friends, and when his father passed away, Kayli was the only person in his life that he dared to let all his emotional barriers down around. He had to be strong for his mother and his siblings. He couldn’t let the kids at school bully him just because he was now fatherless. Her father was too busy to become a father figure for him and therefore he never had another father in his life. But, with Kayli in his life, he didn’t need one. It never mattered to him.

 

It was Kayli who encouraged him to pursue the goal he set for himself to help provide for his single mother. It was Kayli who helped him practice League in Korea. It was Kayli who climbed up the ladder with him.

 

Even when she moved to the States with her father because of his job, she refused to let their friendship fade away. She was as important as family to him, just as he was as important as family to her. 

 

“So…what’s the problem?” Kayli spoke softly. The music that had been playing quietly in the background softened as she clicked a button on a remote, making it almost incomprehensible.

 

“Problem?” Oh, right. “‘KurO.’”

 

Kayli knew who he was since she did her best to follow her best friend’s activities as a professional gamer. “‘KurO’?” she asked, as if implying that the question was about why.

 

“Seohaeng. IM’s – my team’s Mid laner,” he took her question as if she had no idea who ‘KurO’ was.

 

The female Jungler just nodded her head slowly as if she understood. Yeujin didn’t think it was that easy to understand, but he didn’t want to take the energy to explain the entire thing.

 

He didn’t want to tell her how he felt that Kyungho seemed much closer to Seohaeng since they’ve known each other longer than he’s known either of them. Nor, did he want to tell her that it seemed more like – if he swung ‘that way’ – he would choose Seohaeng over him. It shouldn’t have mattered much to him. Yeujin had only known Kyungho for several months, but he still cared. Way too much.

 

After what felt like forever, Kayli spoke again. “Well, let’s see if he’s actually in your way tonight then.”

 

“What?”

 

“Since I invited Kyungho to the party, and Seohaeng’s halfway across the world, you can test it there. Plus, there’ll be alcohol and if he doesn’t react well, he won’t remember the next day anyway.”

 

That wasn’t false. When Yeujin asked Kyungho if he’d like to visit Kayli with him over their off-season in the States, he had agreed. He had some distant relatives who also lived in the same city so he was staying with them. Two birds with one stone – or something like that – he had said. Kayli wanted to get to know the other boy more, so she invited him to the frat party she was taking Yeujin to that night.

 

“But what if he reacts well?”

 

Kayli gave him a playful wink with a gentle pat on his forehead, “well, this is for you to know. So if he doesn’t remember, you can remind him when he’s sober. It’s better this way, right?”

 

She wasn’t giving him any reasons not to. So, why not?

---

Yeujin never cared that he didn’t master much outside of League. Not like the viewers thought he mastered League anyway – calling him things like “Game Over.” Not until that night he hadn’t cared at all. He hadn’t realized how much League had dominated his life until then.

 

His lips had never touched another’s even at the ripe age of nineteen.

 

Well… .

 

What if he turned out to be a horrible kisser and even if Kyungho did like him, everything would be thrown out the window? What if he messed everything up all with just a mere kiss? Kisses mattered, right? So, if he messed up his chances with the sometimes-not-so lovely Top laner, things would fly out the window and off the face of the earth… right?

 

Looking back – even as a drunken 21-year-old Yeujin with his new teammates only half-listening to his story – he realized how stupid he sounded to think that way. If Kyungho had been so shallow as to dismiss him because of the way he kissed, then he shouldn’t have given the Top laner a chance. If he had voiced such worries to Kayli, he was sure she would never let him live it down and he wouldn’t have been doing what he was doing then in the back of that Uber the two of them were riding to the frat party.

 

The sun had set a long while back. Kayli made sure her makeup was subtle, but not so subtle people wouldn’t notice her new look. She had chosen a simple outfit for herself and for her best friend. She even convinced him to let her style his hair for the night.

 

Kayli rested her head on Yeujin’s shoulder as he pouted his lips with his eyes glued to the tiny, bright screen of his phone. Some American Pop song played in the background from the driver’s radio, loud enough to mask their conversation from the driver, but not so loud they couldn’t hear each other.

 

Nervous and nineteen, Google was certainly not enough help for what he was looking for.

 

“What are you asking Google about that you can’t possibly ask me?” Kayli attempted to fight back a yawn as she lifted her head from his shoulder. She lifted a hand up to rub at her eyes, but stopped halfway when she realized she had put some eyeliner on for the night.

 

Yeujin hummed absentmindedly, as he scrolled through the results of his search. “I’m just…looking up how to kiss people…” The LCK Jungler spoke so casually, it was as if that was something everyone looked up every day.

 

He missed the half-smile, half-smirk on his fellow Jungler’s lips as she held back a laugh, “well,” the smile grew as she pushed the phone away from his face. Out of habit, he locked the screen, plunging them both into darkness, lit up by the occasional orange of a passing street lamp. “You should’ve just asked me.”

 

The young Jungler wasn’t sure what he had been expecting, but the lips of his best friend since forever on his own was definitely not it.

 

The moment she finished speaking, Kayli slipped a hand behind his neck, pulling him closer so that their lips could meet. First, it was just a chaste press of their lips. Despite his surprise, Yeujin’s eyes almost immediately fluttered shut, enjoying the gentleness of her touch and the sweetness of her lips.

 

The moment she opened , it just felt natural for him to follow her actions. He trusted her and he knew that she wouldn’t be leading him into something that she had no experience in…maybe. Her fingers played with the short strands of dark-brown hair at his hairline, making him relax into her kiss. She moved her tongue, gently caressing his as her other hand moved to brush her fingers against his blushing cheeks. Her lips moved against his slowly and softly, and he instinctually followed her.

 

His heart began to race. And, even with the feeling of his heart attempting to jump out of his chest, the beating wasn’t uncomfortable. He kind of liked it, actually…

 

If he hadn’t been so busy following Kayli’s lead in the kiss as if she was leading him in a dance, he would’ve heard the driver mutter, “kids these day. No sense of shame in public…”

 

It seemed like forever before Kayli decided to pull back from the kiss. With their foreheads pressed together, both let out short breaths that invisibly mingled as they tried to catch it. A smile graced both of their red lips as the younger of the two pulled away.

 

Yeujin had no idea that his fellow Jungler could kiss so breathtakingly well.

 

Then again, neither of them were children anymore. Plus, she was in college. An experience he hasn’t had before, but something she told him about constantly. As if sharing it with him through stories would give him the same experience.

 

“Well,” he had to hum and clear his throat to fix his voice, which seemed to be lost. “That was a lot different than I expected it to be…”

 

He wasn’t sure if he was talking about the kiss itself or Kayli giving him his first. Maybe both. He would never really know.

 

She was still close enough that Yeujin could feel her breath against his skin, but far enough so that he could see her face when she spoke. He didn’t miss the quick and playful wink he got, which flashed by with the orange lamplight. “You’re welcome, my love.”

---

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A/N: Since it's already over 3k words, I'll end it here. Buuuuut, I want your opinions. Should I add a chapter, or write another, on Reignover and Smeb at the party?

And on a side note: Happy New Year~ I hope 2017 brings you all many happy wishes ♡